When the Space Shuttle blasts off from nearby Kennedy Space Center, NASCAR teams can see it and sometimes feel it in the garage at Daytona International Speedway.

Now NASCAR teams have discovered that it can use the NASA facility to their advantage.

NASCAR teams not only use Daytona International Speedway for testing, but also nearby Kennedy Space Center. (AP Photo)

According to FoxSports.com, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing are using the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, which is located on Merritt Island just south of Daytona, for straight-line testing.

The 15,000-foot concrete NASA runway, which was built for the 1994 Space Shuttle landing, is perfect for gathering aerodynamic data. It’s also more economically feasible than teams traveling from North Carolina to the proving grounds in Arizona.

“We use the landing strip at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral just because it’s a long, smooth straightaway, and it’s warm, so in the wintertime you can test there with pretty controlled conditions,” Richard Childress Racing competition director Dr. Eric Warren told Fox Sports.

“It’s closer (than Arizona). The weather is warmer, and it’s a great wintertime alternative to going to places out West. Most of them are ovals and the straight-line facilities are up north — around Michigan. … This place has plenty of distance.”